“If dealers were allowed to discount prices would be lower to collectors” (1 Viewer)

[jazzeum]

I am very wary of her engaging with outsiders. She is far too good for me, yet does not seem to know that or she isn't letting on. I have organised for her to sit at a table with Wayne, Phil, Barneywomble, Bob and Larso just so that I look better.

Not knowing Jack but having read his posts here, I wonder who gets the last word in his family. My money is not on Jack {eek3} ^&grin

 

[Jack]

Not knowing Jack but having read his posts here, I wonder who gets the last word in his family. My money is not on Jack {eek3} ^&grin

You are wise not to put your money on me. Sometimes going to my TS shop is a relief - I always know Brett will respect my opinions and listen quietly while I articulate them without correcting my misconceptions. He 's very good like that. {sm4}

 

[jazzeum]

You are wise not to put your money on me. Sometimes going to my TS shop is a relief - I always know Brett will respect my opinions and listen quietly while I articulate them without correcting my misconceptions. He 's very good like that. {sm4}

Wives always have the last word. Brett sounds like a good father confessor: the mark of a good listener and toy soldier dealer.

 

[Alex]

hi Brett... The dealer was the only dealer of toy soldiers in town.. He is now only selling magazines and books.. I must say that he was not selling though the internet.. Only local and phone sales.

Nope, no KC for me for at least 3 years... Only costly russian figures and me painting kits..
But I still have hundreds of KC in my collection which I will offer for sale.. Don't get me wrong, I like those figures in a certain way..but I prefer other stuff now.. Like women you know.

Alex,
That is interesting about your local dealer. After all it must be as you have mentioned it a few times over the past few years. As a dealer I would say it is more likely he overestimated his potential customer base (and perhaps overstocked) and simply could not sustain his business. I doubt not being able to discount K&C caused his decline but look forward to future re-runs of how it was all K&C's fault (for those interested I did post a while ago in the Kennedy assassination thread that Andy of K&C did not do it).

As for you saying no to the P figures I hope you wont mind me expressing my opinion that you are jumping on the bandwagon to comment on something you would not be collecting anyway. After all you have posted more than once that you have not bought K&C for years (is it nearly 3 years now ?). I got the impression from a number of posts by you that expensive custom Russian figures were your thing. You paid $900 for one I recall. Good luck to you if you can afford such figures but don't try and make out you are concerned by P figures from a brand you have indicated you no longer collect.

Happy collecting.
Regards
Brett

 

[The Military Workshop]

hi Brett... The dealer was the only dealer of toy soldiers in town.. He is now only selling magazines and books.. I must say that he was not selling though the internet.. Only local and phone sales.

Nope, no KC for me for at least 3 years... Only costly russian figures and me painting kits..
But I still have hundreds of KC in my collection which I will offer for sale.. Don't get me wrong, I like those figures in a certain way..but I prefer other stuff now.. Like women you know.

Alex,
No problem. If he was not selling online and trying to boost his sales with mail order then it would be
tough just relying on local sales. Even then have to have good location (the better the location the higher
the rent) or spend a lot on advertising (can take a lot of money to get a good return). If he had built up a good mail order base he would have moved his stock quicker and not got stuck with so much inventory. As I indicated
I dont think K&C was responsable for his lack of sucess. Since he is now selling books he only has to
worry about Amazon !!!
Regards
Brett

 

[The Military Workshop]

Wives always have the last word. Brett sounds like a good father confessor: the mark of a good listener and toy soldier dealer.

Brad,
The wife works in the shop with me and I have to listen to Jack at least once a week. Who said being
a dealer was easy ???!!!
Brett

 

[Desertkiwi]

Toddy mate,
Luv you cobber. Another coffee spiller. Made my morning my Kiwi brother.^&grin Best reply post of the entire thread, apart of course for my good mate, Young Jack.:smile2: I think I might have to have a quiet word in his wife's ear at the K&C Dinner in Brissy in two weeks time.
Cheers Howard

You are most kind Howard, sorry about the coffee stain^&grin.....I must say without 'Young Jack's' wit the forum would be a less interesting place for all...... come to think of it I reckon the entire forum would be a poorer place without you dodgy lot of Aussie sheep rustlers. :tongue:{sm3}

On that note, the K&C dinner sounds like a blast, I'll have to scrape off the barnacles from me war canoe, dust off the ole safari suite, pen the sheep up and drift across one year......{sm5}

 

[Desertkiwi]

You are wise not to put your money on me. Sometimes going to my TS shop is a relief - I always know Brett will respect my opinions and listen quietly while I articulate them without correcting my misconceptions. He 's very good like that. {sm4}

......I'd be keen to hear about these misconceptions....:wink2:^&grin

 

[Jack]

......I'd be keen to hear about these misconceptions....:wink2:^&grin

'The customer is always right' is one concept that Brett and I have differed on.

 

[Desertkiwi]

'The customer is always right' is one concept that Brett and I have differed on.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall during those conversations.......{sm4}

 

[wayne556517]

I'd love to be a fly on the wall during those conversations.......{sm4}

 

[The Military Workshop]

View attachment 130407

Wayne,
A classic Wayne post:salute::
You have a way with images.
Brett

 

[Desertkiwi]

View attachment 130407

I should have seen that one coming{sm5}.....nice one Wayne, very creative mate^&grin......so what you're trying to say is, apart from Brett's hairy chops, an old rolled up 'Aussie Woman's Weekly' rocketing towards me, the last thing I'd really see, would be my *** exiting me eyeballs.....{eek3}{sm4}.....wicked...

Tell me does Brett really have that much hair??:tongue:

 

[Jack]

I should have seen that one coming{sm5}.....nice one Wayne, very creative mate^&grin......so what you're trying to say is, apart from Brett's hairy chops, an old rolled up 'Aussie Woman's Weekly' rocketing towards me, the last thing I'd really see, would be my *** exiting me eyeballs.....{eek3}{sm4}.....wicked...

Tell me does Brett really have that much hair??:tongue:

Only if you count the soles of his feet!

 

[Desertkiwi]

Only if you count the soles of his feet!

.....the poor man must need to wax!

 

[Vezzolf]

Interesting thread, I just started reading in on it.

First, I like Andy very much but for a customer to take business advice from the manager of King & Country is like taking car buying advice from the president of Cadillac. There's a certain inescapable point of view as to why you need to buy his product at a certain price.

As a consumer, my gut feeling is that a "no discounts" policy is simply a way to maintain a "cachet" about certain products. I buy my jean from Wal Mart becuase they have the item I need at a price I can afford to pay - I don't wear any fancy designer clothes. I don't care about the name sewed in as long as it lasts reasonably and meets my needs. Similarly, I don't buy K&C because their name is on the box, I buy them because they make a fine product and they meet my needs (OK "desires" rather than "needs"). The cachet does help resale, I admit, and yes, I have capitalized on that.

I dabble in several model hobbies, trains, plastic models, etc as well as plastic and metal toy soldiers. The trend across all of them is for the small "mom and pop" store to be forced out of business by larger competitors who sell agressively over the internet, with significant discounts. I have had good experiences with internet sellers and bad experiences. The same goes for toy soldier shops - I see no need to save "the little guy" just because he is little. Back in 2009 I visited San Antonio and was able to go to King's X. I had such lousy customer service that I wouldn't walk across the street to buy from that outfit again! On the other hand, my first K&C dealer was Toy Soldiers Of Charleston. He was extremely nice and friendly and got me interested in buying King and Country products. So you can't say that a large discount store is "evil" and a small shop is "better" or more deserving of my money.

I am lucky enough to have a couple "brick and mortar" train stores in my area. They ar small shops that emphasize customer service. They offer about 10% discounts and both use the internet as a marketing tool. They carry multiple lines of products and they let the products sell themselves - no line is held back at a "no discount" to maintain its "collector value". These fellows seem to be eking out a living in the current economy. They are free to market their wares without a manufacturer dictating pricing policy. Somehow these manufacturers keep producing new product and the products seem to sell, even with $4 per gallon gas and the other pressures of the current economy. So I would say that a manufacurer's pricing policy does not help the dealer keep his doors open.

Gary B.

WELL SAID...Excellent Post{bravo}}

 

[Vezzolf]

On the other end of this topic, I have seen several dealers increase prices once the item becomes retired. Possibly due to low quantity and high demand ^&confuse
Some of you may have seen this too.

Yes, That indeed does go on as well.... Speculators and (Even Worse) Dealer-Speculators.....EZ Answer: Simply refuse to buy from them....Retired????...Oh well.... keep it...."Way Over-priced"...Oh well.... KEEP IT AGAIN.^&grin....Sorry...Not playing that game. It only continues to drive up prices for all of us in this hobby and none of us need that.

 

[Mitch]

nice that we are on topic again!! Could not agree more the greed of some simply makes it worse for everyone at the end of the day.
Mitch

Yes, That indeed does go on as well.... Speculators and (Even Worse) Dealer-Speculators.....EZ Answer: Simply refuse to buy from them....Retired????...Oh well.... keep it...."Way Over-priced"...Oh well.... KEEP IT AGAIN.^&grin....Sorry...Not playing that game. It only continues to drive up prices for all of us in this hobby and none of us need that.

 

[Fitzgibbon]

Yes, That indeed does go on as well.... Speculators and (Even Worse) Dealer-Speculators.....EZ Answer: Simply refuse to buy from them....Retired????...Oh well.... keep it...."Way Over-priced"...Oh well.... KEEP IT AGAIN.^&grin....Sorry...Not playing that game. It only continues to drive up prices for all of us in this hobby and none of us need that.

There ya go! It's called rational choice and it is EZ as you say; just buy what you can afford on your income...so simple...and I've found that with a little extra effort you can avoid the envy when those who can afford them pay $160 each for those Red Lancers that you quietly admit are really nice. Now if I could just get fuel for only $4 per gallon... what a pity it doesn't have a fixed universal price.

 

[Martin Tabony]

Interesting thread, I just started reading in on it.

First, I like Andy very much but for a customer to take business advice from the manager of King & Country is like taking car buying advice from the president of Cadillac. There's a certain inescapable point of view as to why you need to buy his product at a certain price.

As a consumer, my gut feeling is that a "no discounts" policy is simply a way to maintain a "cachet" about certain products. I buy my jean from Wal Mart becuase they have the item I need at a price I can afford to pay - I don't wear any fancy designer clothes. I don't care about the name sewed in as long as it lasts reasonably and meets my needs. Similarly, I don't buy K&C because their name is on the box, I buy them because they make a fine product and they meet my needs (OK "desires" rather than "needs"). The cachet does help resale, I admit, and yes, I have capitalized on that.

I dabble in several model hobbies, trains, plastic models, etc as well as plastic and metal toy soldiers. The trend across all of them is for the small "mom and pop" store to be forced out of business by larger competitors who sell agressively over the internet, with significant discounts. I have had good experiences with internet sellers and bad experiences. The same goes for toy soldier shops - I see no need to save "the little guy" just because he is little. Back in 2009 I visited San Antonio and was able to go to King's X. I had such lousy customer service that I wouldn't walk across the street to buy from that outfit again! On the other hand, my first K&C dealer was Toy Soldiers Of Charleston. He was extremely nice and friendly and got me interested in buying King and Country products. So you can't say that a large discount store is "evil" and a small shop is "better" or more deserving of my money.

I am lucky enough to have a couple "brick and mortar" train stores in my area. They ar small shops that emphasize customer service. They offer about 10% discounts and both use the internet as a marketing tool. They carry multiple lines of products and they let the products sell themselves - no line is held back at a "no discount" to maintain its "collector value". These fellows seem to be eking out a living in the current economy. They are free to market their wares without a manufacturer dictating pricing policy. Somehow these manufacturers keep producing new product and the products seem to sell, even with $4 per gallon gas and the other pressures of the current economy. So I would say that a manufacurer's pricing policy does not help the dealer keep his doors open.

Gary B.

If you don't mind me saying, I think you made the worst possible comparison there. Anyone who has dealt in clothing knows that high end manufacturers protect their retailers, and one of the ways is by setting a retail price.
Indeed I would say that your comparison of Walmart jeans to a brand would be closer to buying "green army men" in a bag, instead of King and Country! If as you say "The cachet does help resale, I admit, and yes, I have capitalized on that." then you are buying for the name.
Other wise as with jeans which were first made popular by Levi Strauss and Co, you could argue that K&C made modern toy soldiers popular to a larger market, so why not buy one of their immitaters?
Whether you get better customer service from a shop or over the internet is a different subject.
What matters here is that there has to be a sufficient price set to cover all expenses along the chain. If not then there won't be enough profit to make new products!
" Somehow these manufacturers keep producing new product and the products seem to sell," Just look what happened to Britain a few years back. I know people talk as though they've always been here, but they haven't!

Martin